Boone: Must prove himself to Yanks

The Associated Press

Wednesday

Dec 6, 2017 at 10:32 PMDec 7, 2017 at 12:14 AM

NEW YORK — Aaron Boone was pulling into the driveway of his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., last Thursday, bringing 8-year-old daughter Bella home from school so his wife could drive her to a dance lesson, and he noticed a missed call from Brian Cashman.

Boone called back the Yankees' general manager as his wife looked on and said Cashman told him: "Hey, just first and foremost, I want to make sure you're completely on board and understanding the commitment level that is now expected of you."

And with that, at age 44 Boone had secured his first manager or coaching job of any kind since his retirement as a player eight years ago.

Boone was introduced Wednesday as the Yankees' manager during a news conference at Yankee Stadium, where televisions throughout the ballpark showed images of him rounding the bases in triumph after his 11th-inning home run off Boston's Tim Wakefield won Game 7 of the 2003 AL Championship Series for the Yankees.

"It's certainly something that I'm known for in my baseball life, obviously, and in some way probably is a contributor to me being here today," he said.

Among six candidates for the job, Boone so impressed Cashman and his staff that no second round of interviews was needed.

"The interview process is to try to determine how Aaron ticks and if he is an extension of our philosophies or pretty close to an extension of our philosophies and what kind of decision-making process he would gravitate to," Cashman said. "That doesn't mean there won't be some growing pains on the beginning end, and we're OK with that."

Cashman recommended Boone after consulting with a smorgasbord of his modern-day front office: assistant GMs Jean Afterman and Mike Fishman, vice president of baseball operations Tim Naehring, senior director of player development Kevin Reese, assistant director of professional scouting Dan Giese, director of quantitative analysis David Grabiner, director of mental conditioning Chad Bohling, head athletic trainer Steve Donohue and vice president of communications Jason Zillo.

"There was a difference of opinion among the participants as to who their number two- or three-choice was, but there was little-to-no difference of opinion as to who their number-one choice was," owner Hal Steinbrenner said. "It wasn't even close."

Steinbrenner spoke briefly with Boone outside Donohue's office when Boone interviewed on Nov. 17. Steinbrenner originally had said he and his siblings would meet with candidates who reached a second round.

"When I get that kind of recommendation from my top people, I just didn't see the need," he said.

Boone had worked for ESPN since retiring as a player. He acknowledged one of his first tasks will be to convince his players he can do the job.

"I think in short order I'll be able to earn that respect, that they'll be able to look at me, trust in me, know that I have their interest at heart, but know that hopefully I know what the heck I'm talking about," he said. "That's something that you have to earn over the initial days in spring training, in the season."

Boone was assigned uniform 17, his number with Cincinnati and Cleveland; pitcher Masahiro Tanaka has the No. 19 jersey Boone wore with the Yankees in 2003.

Boone can appreciate tough managerial decisions. He was benched by Joe Torre against starter Pedro Martinez in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS in favor of Enrique Wilson, then entered as a pinch runner.

"I'm going to really care about these guys. Hopefully I'm going to love these guys and they're going to love me back, but when you have to make difficult decisions you have to be honest in your evaluations," he said. "So sometimes I feel like there's the potential to be clouded because you like a guy or you want a guy to do so well and you're kind of hoping."

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